Northwest Notebook. Yesterday.

Foiling Palatine's First Bank Robber

The first attempted bank robbery in Palatine was thwarted by an unlikely source.

Henry Plagge, an elderly farmer who lived a few miles west of the village, was the hero on the afternoon of Sept. 18, 1899.

According to newspaper accounts, a tall, well-built and neatly dressed man arrived via train from Chicago at 2:05 p.m.

The man entered the bank a little before 3 p.m. and encountered Fred Filbert, the bank's only cashier. The stranger asked for directions to a local residence. As Filbert attempted to locate a farm on the map, the man hit him on the head with a hammer and pulled Filbert behind the bank's counter.

At that moment, Plagge entered the bank and demanded to see Mr. Filbert. The stranger pointed out Filbert on the floor and said Filbert was sick or injured.

Suspecting nothing, Plagge approached Filbert and leaned over him. The stranger then attacked Plagge with the same hammer, and the two men tumbled to the ground.

The robber landed on top of Plagge and began to beat him with a revolver. The gun discharged in the tussle, hitting the stranger in the groin. The commotion attracted passersby, who called for help.

Filbert's son, an officer of the U.S. Steel Corp., used a special train to get to his father and summoned some of the top doctors in Chicago to save his father's life. The robber died a few days later.

Had Plagge not happened by, the man would have escaped on the 3:19 train with more than $5,000.

Plagge's actions were greatly appreciated by the Palatine Police Department, which at the time consisted of only two paid police officers and some volunteers.